New Thoughts: (04/30/14-05/03/14)
I find my preparatory notes for this section are somewhat less clear in their direction than usual. But, they do seem to gather themselves around three divisions of the passage, much as I saw things when I arranged my paraphrase of Peter’s message. I suppose we shall see what develops.
Peter starts out with a call to humility. This is a term which gives us some pause because we have our ideas about what it means, but oft times our ideas are wrong. I have to say that in this case the lexical definitions were not particularly helpful. Those give the idea of embarrassment and abasement. Yes, there is the matter of having an honest estimate of oneself, recognizing the extent of one’s sinfulness. That will certainly prompt a less prideful perspective. I’m just not comfortable that this is what we’re intended to see.
That Peter is drawing a contrast between pride and humility is certain. He draws that distinction plainly. Oh, pride, you greatest pitfall of life! I could go back so far as I wished in these years I have walked with Christ and see that enemy clearly marked out and just as clearly undefeated. It is ever the battle of this flesh, that pride will seem to have been subjugated, but will rear up in other guise to trouble my life once more. That in itself is sufficient cause for humility! What have I to be proud of so long as pride continues?
I find it particularly telling, though, that Peter has moved to this matter of humility immediately upon discussion of the elder’s role. It starts with a call to the led to heed direction. Be subject to your elders! One can almost hear the elders giving their amen to this as it is read to the church. That’s right, you young pups. Hear the man. But, Peter anticipates. He moves immediately to the more general: All of you! Every last one of you need to work on humility. This is not some careful analysis he has done based on what he’s hearing about the church. No such analysis is needed. We have but to look at ourselves with honest eyes and we know the situation. Peter surely knew the situation. He’d been there and back again. If anybody knew the battle that is given by pride, it was Peter. But, neither ought we to suppose he’s giving this advice as somebody who’s finished his battle with pride. No. I think Peter’s self-assessment can be heard in verse 9. We’re all experiencing the same things.
What is this business of humility towards one another, then? There is a sense available to the term which would suggest the idea of assigning oneself a lower rank, and that is certainly in keeping with the Gospel. You would lead? Make yourself servant to all. But, that’s more an admonition for the elders, isn’t it? Yes. But, at the same time, it’s an admonition suited for all.
The translations and footnotes are many and varied on this. The Amplified picks up on the example from the Last Supper, and sees Peter putting forward that image of Jesus with towel and bowl. The terminology is suggestive of that scene. ‘Apron’ yourselves with humility ‘as the garb of a servant’. That was certainly the model Jesus was setting. Garbed with nothing but a towel, doing the task of the lowliest household slave, with the lesson clearly declared: You should do the same for one another. This is what leadership is about in My service.
In apparent contrast to this perspective, the NET offers a footnote quoted from a source they speak of only as ExSyn. “Humbling oneself is not a negative act of self-denial per se, but a positive one of active dependence on God for help.” Given where Peter goes with this in verse 6, we could see this sort of positive application. But, there it also seems he is giving more a contrast than a comparative. In fact, in verse 6 I would be more inclined to accept the idea of assigning oneself a lower rank. Remember who He is and your own self-valuation is going to necessarily decrease.
But, stay with verse 5 awhile longer. Clothe yourself, apron yourself. Here, I find Darby to be particularly poignant in his translation. “Bind on humility towards one another.” I cannot hear that phrase without being put in mind of the Irish warrior’s prayer that appears in Iona’s “Encircling”. “I bind upon myself today, the power of God to hold and lead; His eye to watch, His might to stay, His ear to hearken to my need.” It goes on from there. But, if I may I would combine these two thoughts. As Peter indicates that His might is cause for our humility before Him, might we not also suggest that to have bound on humility as our clothing – even as our armor – we have indeed bound on the power of God to hold and lead? It is the self-same thing. In humility, power. It is nonsense to the ear of flesh, but in the economy of God it is perfectly fitting.
In verse 6, Peter having noted that a true awareness of God must needs give us every reason for humility, he adds that as we humble ourselves, “He may exalt you at the proper time.” The action of exalting is given in the Subjunctive mood. It is not the certainty we will find later, but neither ought we to read this as suggesting maybe He will maybe He won’t. Rather, the Subjunctive is given as a conditional. We might read thusly: If you do not humble yourselves under God He most certainly will not exalt you. Go back to verse 5. God opposes the proud. But, to the humble? He gives grace. He gives undeserved favor. Your humility, friend, does not earn you anything. It has no merit. It removes nothing of sin’s stain. It does, however, mark one out as a disciple of Jesus Christ. It gives evidence of at least one lesson absorbed. And, as you are laboring in sanctification and humility is becoming an established trait in your character, there is this: God will exalt you when the time is right.
Now, I would say we want to be very careful in our understanding of this exalting as well. This is not necessarily to be taken as making magnificent and glorious. It’s little or nothing to do with rank, even if we have that idea of humility indicating a lowered rank. It seems to me that this idea of higher and lower rank has almost no place in the Christian faith. There is God and there is us. That’s it for distinctions. Yes, there are those set in places of leadership, but never with that earthly sense of lords and ladies. It’s more like first among equals, a shepherd who is also a sheep.
We might do better to keep the more mundane idea of lifting up in view. This same word, after all, is used of Jesus being raised up on the cross. While this resulted in a most glorious result, it was hardly a glorious moment. It was not demonstration of Christ in all His magnificence. Indeed, it was the ultimate moment of His humiliation. In those hours on the cross, He was suffering the fullest indignity that man could cause Him to suffer. Worse yet, He was suffering the rejection of His own Father, Who could not look upon sin – even this alien sin set upon His own Son by His own design.
For some of those hearing this letter read, the lifting up might have been very much in keeping with that image. Peter himself would be lifted up in just such a fashion at the end of his days. But, there is that more wonderful sense that we shall be caught up with Christ in the day of His return, a more positive lifting up as was His own Ascension. Perhaps this is what Peter would have us see.
[05/01/14] As we come into verse 7, we arrive at a very familiar passage. “Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you.” Or, so the popular song preserves it in our memory. Some of the translations follow that sense of things. But, that gives one the sense of a command being given. In reality, this connects back to the command to humble yourselves in verse 6. That is the command. This comes as the method by which to satisfy the command. How do you humble yourself under God’s mighty hand? By throwing your every care on His shoulders, knowing that they are cares for the very simple reason that you cannot deal with them, and knowing that He not only can, but cares enough that He will. Darby looks at the syntax of this act of casting, and sets it as a thing prior to the act of humbling. But, Wheeler’s notes that where an Aorist Participle would typically have such a relationship to the main verb, when that main verb is also an Aorist the action is more likely contemporary. I.e. the two activities are concurrent. This rather makes sense, if casting our cares and concerns on God is the way by which we humble ourselves under His hand.
Wuest picks up on another aspect of the Aorist Participle stressing that we do this casting, or as he renders it, ‘having deposited’, ‘once for all’. I note he also picks up on that ‘preceding the main verbal action’ aspect, but it is the ‘once for all’ sense of the thing that is particular to his rendering. I am not certain we ought to place such a stress on the simple action of the Aorist in comparison to the continual action of the Present participle. Does the fact of this being a one-time action necessitate this once for all perspective? I suppose it does, doesn’t it?
We may lose that in a more typical English translation, but we understand that it’s a problem. We’ve all been there. We faced some great trial in our life and we remember to pray. We give it to God. But, ten minutes later, we’ve taken it back in hand and begun to worry over it again. We know this is foolishness. We admonish one another to leave it in God’s hands. We know, though, because it’s what we do so often, that we will try again anyway.
Here’s the connecting thread that we neglect, though: Peter is saying that our act of placing our cares on His shoulders once for all IS the evidence of our truly humbling ourselves under Him. It’s the mark of our recognition of Who God Is. I don’t think it would be going too far to say it is the mark of our faith in Who God Is. The reason we fail at this clearly desirable way of living is that we’re still stock at that stage where we know God can, we just don’t really believe He will. We’re pretty certain that in the end, we really are on our own. At best, we’ve managed to get to the point of thinking that God helps those who help themselves. We’ve taken that to heart, and there’s a grain of truth in it. God does expect us to have an active hand in our own affairs, and councils rather firmly against a life of slothful complacency, even – maybe particularly – towards His work in our lives.
It’s a common refrain in my studies, isn’t it? Work out your salvation in fear and trembling knowing that it is God working in you (Php 2:12-13). That’s the deal. You can’t do it without Him and He won’t do it without you. If you won’t cast your cares on Him you have no cause to expect Him to act. If you don’t expect Him to take care of the matter, then you haven’t really cast your cares on Him. You’re still intent on keeping yourself in charge, and just mouthing platitudes when you say you’re giving it to Him.
Here’s the Truth that Peter proclaims: He cares for you. He cares about you, and has regard for you. Look! Knowing that God is, well, God – all-powerful, all-knowing, complete in Himself – how can you hear this and not be blown away by it? “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that You have brought me this far” (2Sa 7:18)? “Who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You and from Your hand we have given to You” (1Chr 29:14)? “I am a worm, not a man…But You are He who brought me forth from the womb” (Ps 22:6, Ps 22:9). These are the thoughts of one who has, however momentarily, caught sight of the real situation, the real relationship. God! You are far and away above me in power, in knowledge, in any system of measure I could choose. I am a worm in comparison. I am less than dirt. And yet: And yet, You have brought me this far. And yet, You have empowered me to give into Your service that which You have given me. What have I got that You did not give? There’s nothing. What have I to offer You that I can say is my own doing? There’s nothing. What have I to boast of except Your own goodness? Again, there is nothing. And yet, I am so boastful a man, so proud of my accomplishments and skills and reputation. Really? I must once more return to this seemingly perpetual task of remembering my real weakness and Your real power.
Lord, You care for me. If it were not so I should be thoroughly undone by my foolishness many times over. I cannot for a moment imagine what You seen in me that it should be thus, but I know it is. You have told me. You have shown me repeatedly. Your Word makes it plain how great is Your love for me. But, if it were only these written words, I could still write it off as some man’s wishful thinking. You have gone beyond this. You have given me ample evidence of Your care. You have granted me the wisdom to perceive the reality of my own past, the times You intervened lest I not only allow the stone in my path to cause me to stumble, but actively smite myself against it in my foolishness. Why am I alive except that You decided I should survive my youthful stupidity. Why am I alive except that You have gone above and beyond any call of duty to protect me when my own actions were putting me in harm’s way. It’s always been You caring not only for me, but about me, even when I had nothing but disbelief and disinterest towards You. You have been faithful. You have been strong. You have been there. If I am anything today, it is only because of You.
Father, Holy One, I would ask, knowing and being reminded of this once more, that You would grant me the clarity of thought and expression to make this understood to my own child. I see where she is and it is all so familiar to me. The details may differ somewhat, but the mindset is so nearly my own from that age. Yet, I know we are two very different people in many ways, and if I try to express what I know of You in terms that reach to my particular way of thinking, it may not weigh much at all with her. But, that’s trying to deliver You to her in my strength. Would You, my God and King, be pleased to deliver her from herself in Your strength? And would You be so kind, Lord, as to aid me in casting this particular care upon Your capable shoulders once for all? Thank You, and Amen.
Moving in the section starting with verse 8, the message returns more directly to the topic of suffering, from which Peter never strays for long. It is a reminder that we are in a battle here, not with our neighbors or coworkers, not with the people who misunderstand and mock and slander. We are in a battle that is much more serious than all that. It is a battle that demands that we stay alert to our surroundings, that we remain serious about what we are about. We face an adversary who is particularly cunning, particularly powerful and particularly vigorous in his attacks. He is, Peter tells us, like a ravenous lion. He is driven by a hunger, and all he cares about is satisfying that hunger. But, it is a hunger that cannot be sated. And if anything, this renders him that much more vicious in his attack.
It would seem that Peter gives us two perspectives on this enemy of ours, though. As he reminds us of the need for serious attentiveness he points out the devil as our adversary. That term has implications beyond mere opposition and enmity. It indicates one’s opponent at law, the one who is suing you. It puts us nearer the devil’s role as accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10), although the term there is far different. Perhaps, then, it is not this role Peter would have us keep in view. It seems to me that Wuest has seen the same idea, when he provides the translation, “Your adversary who is a slanderer”. I cannot really come up with anything in the text to support that idea of slandering, but it does suggest somebody levelling charges against you, false though they may be.
Of course, if we are in that place of humility before God, it should occur to us that the accuser has no particular need for slander. The charges by which he seeks to destroy us quite true. It would do him no good to bring false charges before the court of heaven, nor has he need to do so. That may have been necessary to bring Jesus down before a human court, but to bring a human down before God’s court? It is not only unnecessary, it couldn’t possibly work.
Let me follow this judicial image a bit longer. Consider the case. You have arrived before the Judge in heaven, and here is the devil listing off the seemingly infinite list of charges against you. As each one is brought forward, the events surrounding that charge come clearly to mind and you know full well that every last one of those charges is accurate. You know yourself guilty of every single accusation. Slander? Where’s the need? Why spoil an open and shut case? Here’s the thing: Just as it would be foolish and futile for the devil to bring false charges before this court, so it would be foolish and futile for you to deny the true charges.
So, what’s your plan? When the charges have been read, and the Judge turns to you and asks, “How do you plead?” What are you going to say? Protestations of innocence aren’t going to get very far. Proudly shouting, “But, sir! I’m a Christian” aren’t all that likely to do much better. If there’s pride at all, I should think the case closed. Pride can have no communion with repentance. No. There can only be sorrowful and humble confession to the truth of those charges. It may be that as the popular imagery has it you will plead the atoning work of Christ. Yes, it’s true I did all those things, but I have set my faith in Him and He has paid my penalty to this court already. True enough, and yet it seems a bit presumptuous.
I am inclined to suspect that when we have heard the litany of our sins and when we are fully aware of the real holiness of God our Judge there’s going to be little room in our thinking for offering any excuse or any mitigating evidence. I think we may find ourselves wholly satisfied with confessing that yes, it is as he has said. I did these things. I said these things. To my great and eternal sorrow I admit freely that everything he has said is quite true. It may even feel rather good to get that whole mess out in the open once for all time. Then, we shall hear the verdict rendered by a perfect Judge. If we belong to Christ, we may still hear the Judge confirm that every one of those charges was valid. But… You see, it’s not our but that has power. It is God’s. He may – one could argue He must – acknowledge the charges and acknowledge our confession to the same. But, He shall then make note of one critical fact: The record shows that the full penalty for every one of these crimes against heaven has already been remitted to the court. You are free to go.
In the final account, it is not our words which shall carry the day, our confession of faith. It shall be the validity of Him in whom we have placed our faith. It is all Jesus.
This is something that becomes clearer the more Peter sets out the picture of our battle. For, it is not just the legal battle that he has in view, but the daily battle of trying to live in light of the Gospel. That has been the point of this entire letter. This suffering you are going through is not just random events. Neither is it cause to suppose the faith you have placed in Christ is misplaced. It is just your enemy attacking. It is in every way proof that you have cause for faith, that your faith is real. In this life you will have tribulations: That wasn’t just a word for the apostles. It is the constant condition of the believer.
If, in this life, you do not have tribulations it is cause for concern. If everything is going swimmingly, and everybody loves your companionship, then either you have abandoned the world for the cloistered life or you have abandoned Christ for the world. The church that the world welcomes and celebrates is not the church of Christ. It is the corruption of antichrist. This is not to suggest we ought to go out and seek tribulations out that we may celebrate our martyred existence. That’s foolishness. But, it does mean we don’t shy away just because there’s resistance.
Indeed, we are the resistance. We have been called out of the world into the kingdom of heaven and heaven’s God. Therefore, Peter insists we be sober and alert. “Curb every passion,” says Weymouth. That’s a good take on the command. And I might even emphasize every passion. It’s not just the negative passions that we see as disqualifying characteristics for one who would lead God’s church. Zeal and righteous ardor can be just as great a problem if they are passions unbridled by wisdom and knowledge. A passionate apologist can do more harm than good. If we are arguing God’s case on the basis of passion and emotion rather than from wisdom and knowledge, we are at great risk of falling right into those very disqualifying passions we seek so hard to curb.
It is a very fine line between impassioned defense and angry verbal assault. It requires a particular preparation – both mental and spiritual – to remain cool and deliberate in debates of such moment. There’s a reason that skilled oratory was so highly valued in those ancient cultures. We have lost much of this in our own time, and are made more susceptible to the plea from emotion. But, this is not as it ought to be. This is not the way of the Beraeans. Emotion has its place, but it is not in the defense or assessment of Truth. Curb every passion.
Be alert. Be on the lookout for the trickery of your opponent. He’s just looking for a weakness he can exploit, and he’s quite adept at finding them. He’s a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Well, consider the ways of such a hunter. The lion doesn’t seek out the fittest, the strongest, the fastest to attack. He looks for the weak one, the easy meal. After all, the more energy exerted in taking down the prey, the less value the meal that comes of it. It’s the simple economics of survival. If energy out exceeds energy in the system must collapse. He’s seeking someone to devour, and we all know that it’s the one who proves slowest at getting away, right? But, then look at the advice!
Stand firm. What? Shouldn’t we be running for shelter? Shouldn’t we be finding a tree we can climb to get out of his reach? No. Stand firm and resist him. Now, I cannot claim to have fought lions nor to have dealt with them in any fashion. But, this certainly seems odd advice, doesn’t it? Is this the normal mode of dealing with them? David, we know, had to fight off lions on occasion out there in the pasture lands. I suppose you can’t really fend them off by running, but that was a defense of the defenseless. This is personal defense. Are those different matters, or are they in fact the same thing? We are, after all, defenseless sheep in our own right.
So, then, let us not miss the modifier. Resist him, firm in faith. “Stand firm when he attacks,” reads the Living Bible. Wuest builds the case even more strongly. “Stand immovable against his onset, solid as a rock in your faith.” The point is this: It is in your faith or there is no ground to stand on. Faith is for us a strong tower of defense against this enemy because faith is in our Strong Tower. This was David’s key. God is my Rock, my Strong Tower, my Sword and my Shield. “I bind upon myself today the power of God to hold and lead.” I can’t seem to get away from that lately. It is the power of God, else we are not going to stand at all. But, in God’s power? We are able to stand and stand some more.
We stand firm by faith and by faith alone, just as we are saved by faith and faith alone. Here, Peter brings in yet another beautiful truth: We stand in faith knowing. It is no blind faith in which we stand, but a faith with every reason. This is the point to which Peter has been building for the whole course of the letter! You are suffering? Good on you! Christ suffered, and He suffered far worse. For you. More unjustly than the worst of the mistreatment you face, or ever will face, even should you be crucified for His name’s sake; He suffered. But, you know! You know He did this for you. You know that if the world hates Him it’s going to hate you, too. You know that this suffering, insomuch as it comes not for sins committed but for righteousness pursued, is nothing but the god of this world rejecting you who follow the God of all creation. You know you are not the only ones. These very same tribulations are being suffered by all your brethren who are in the world.
If to live is Christ, to live is to expect this. If to die is gain, it is in part because these tribulations are then behind us and only Christ is before us. If the present is trial, you know it is evidence of the eternity that lies ahead for you, and eternal glory in Christ. The God of all grace, who calls you into that eternal glory will see that you survive this. He HIMSELF will perfect you, confirm you, strengthen you and establish you.
Before I move all the way into verse 10, though, I want to consider that matter of knowing just a bit further. The NET notes that this is given as a participle, and that as a participle, this idea of knowing denotes a reason for the related action. Knowing is not just a means by which we resist and stand firm. It is the reason we resist and stand firm. We resist and stand firm because in the end, we know that even should this ravening lion succeed in taking us down, yet we shall live – forever.
So, then: Be alert and serious, for your opponent at law is the devil himself. But, stand firm and resist his attacks in faith, knowing that your Advocate is Messiah himself! Stand firm in faith, knowing that what you are facing is neither more nor less than has been faced by numberless believers before you. Stand firm in faith, knowing that the final outcome for you is victory and an eternity of life in the glory of Christ.
And dig this: It is the God of all grace who called you to this glory. It’s grace. You don’t need to succeed perfectly in your defense against this attack, because what He gives He gives in absolute freeness. It is God’s expression of His own lovingkindness towards you. In this He is motivated by nothing apart from His own freehearted giving. It’s not about your great abilities and worth. It’s about His great love and infinite worth. It goes back to verse 7. He cares for you. You’re on His mind. If you can come up with some good reason why this should be so then by all means share. But, you know there is no good reason. There is only a good and magnanimous God, whose love is so great that it has overcome His enemies, whose mercy is so full as to adopt those very enemies into His own royal household. His love is so great that He is patient with us, working long hours to see us transformed, as much as we feel ourselves so resistant to the change.
[05/03/14] This message Peter delivers in verse 10 is intriguing. If it were but the second half that he gave, I would hear of God’s power being my strength in the present. But, there is the first clause to contend with. All this which God will do He will do after you have suffered for a while. It puts me in mind of an old lesson saying that God doesn’t deliver us from temptation but delivers us through the temptation. He provides a way where there is no way, but that way tends to run right through trial instead of avoiding it. So it would seem to be in this case. God is not going to prevent the suffering. Indeed, we have to allow that He has determined this suffering must come. It is, as Peter has reminded us, to a good purpose although we may not see it as such just now. It is training, if you will; the gymnasium of faith. But, after your time in that gym, God will achieve by His own mighty hand what you could not. If suffering is the gym, it is not the thing that strengthens us. It is God alone who strengthens us.
Peter gives us this outcome in four terms. It seems pretty clear that there is a parallelism to the terms. They are each reinforcing the other. But, it is not simply a repetition of the same point. Each term adds its own particular significance to the result. We start with katartisei, which the NAS renders as perfect. There is a sense in which this term talks about equipping or even mending. It is a making fit, making sound and complete. So then: If suffering has done some damage, He will put it to rights. “Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day that we may live before Him” (Hos 6:1).
Do you hear the same message? As we understand that the suffering that Peter has been speaking of throughout this letter comes not as punishment for sin but as the price of citizenship, the way the world treats foreigners, we understand that this suffering is both for Christ and by God’s decree. We know God is good and that He loves and cares for us, as Peter has just reminded us. Therefore, if suffering has come by His decree, it has come for our good and not our destruction. If He has done this to our benefit, He will surely heal whatever injury may come of it, even death. For His call is unto life.
I can also feel the reverberations of shalom in this promise. He will set everything back to its perfect and proper operational order – everything as it was intended to be. Indeed, Thayer makes that echo even a bit stronger in his discussion of katartisei: To make one what he ought to be. It is the working of shalom on the personal level.
Next, we have the term steerixei, or confirm. This is not saying that God will speak positively to us with reassuring praises. God is not into such empty, vanity-inducing nonsense. That expectation is a product of our own fallen society. To be sure, if there are positive developments in our character, God will grant that we see His handiwork. But, He will also see to it that we are mindful that it is His handiwork and none of our own. The sense of steerixei, though, is something different. Take Strong’s offering on the word: To set fast, or to turn resolutely in a specific direction. He will set you on the Way. He will see to it that you turn neither to the left nor to the right, but remain set fast in the specific direction that leads you home to His eternal glory.
This is followed by sthenoosei, strengthen. It’s somewhat amusing that Strong in this case resorts to a definition of confirming in knowledge and power. We’re back at confirming. Apart from noting that the strengthening pertains to soul rather than physique, Thayer doesn’t add much to our understanding here. But, it is helpful to be reminded that the concern is spiritual more than physical.
Finally, we come to themelioosei, establish. This is a term we might associate more with construction projects. It pertains to laying a foundation. But, why do we lay a foundation? To make the structure built upon that foundation stable. To this end we have the church built upon the one foundation that was laid in Christ and the Apostles. Upon this firm foundation the church can be built with stability and assurance, and upon no other. Perhaps Peter has that thought in mind as he adds this word to his letter, but he may be thinking on a less communal level. The Church surely needs firm foundation. But, so does each individual Christian who makes up the church.
Each of us, having come to faith, needs to be made stable. We need firm theological ground under foot if we are not to be tossed and swayed by every philosophical or sociological trend that happens along. And those trends happen! They happen regularly and over the long haul. There are tides of opinion in every society which run entirely counter to righteousness. One could argue that there are few if any tides that run with it. But, if we have not a firm foundation in Christ and in the doctrinal truths of the True faith, those tides of opinion will erode what was begun with us.
Think of the Grand Canyon. Somewhere back in the distant past, that canyon was a plain. The river that runs through may have been little more than a creek at the time. Weak water running over solid rock: It seems clear that the rock will stand forever and yet, in time the reality is that water is assuredly going to win. The strongest rock cannot withstand the constant erosive action. There is but one exception to this rule, and that is the Rock, Christ Jesus. But for His permanence to hold us, we must be upon that Rock. We need Him as foundation, else the waters of fallen man will most assuredly wash away whatever bits of faith we have built.
I am doubtless butchering my metaphors here, but the point holds. He will found you. He will be your foundation to make you stable. It is last in the list, but I dare say it is of first importance. He sets the foundation in Himself and places you upon that foundation, turned in one very specific direction. He gives you the strength of character to stand fast where He has set you, and as the winds and waters come against you, they serve only to perfect you, to render you fully and completely as you ought to be. They do not destroy, they shape. To return to my Grand Canyon image: If that land had not been exposed to the wearing abrasions of the water, the land would be nothing noteworthy. It would just be more scrubland worth little to anyone. But, because of those abrasions, it is now a thing of magnificence. Its glory is known to all, and folks will travel for weeks at great expense just to see it.
There is the work God is accomplishing in us. These sufferings are like the river that carved the canyon. But, in Him you will stand firm. In Him, those sufferings are just removing the crud that needed to be removed. They are the scraper come to skim the dross off of your life as you reside in the crucible of His work in you. The Refiner’s fire burns hot, as it must to melt our stony hearts. But, as it melts us, all the garbage of life in this fallen world, of our own fallen nature, is exposed and loosened from its grip on us. Without that fire, it remains. But, with the fire of God’s love at work upon us, it rises atop the purity of His work in us, and the sufferings come to skim it away that it may no longer have a part in us.
Now, all of these terms are given to us as Future Indicatives, and as they are spoken of as actions that God Himself undertakes, they are given to us in the Active voice. That said, from our perspective, I think we must see them as Passives. They are things that will be done to or for us. The Indicative aspect establishes that this is a certainty. Understand the power of that. There is no subjunctive mood here, no air of maybe He will, or He will if. It is the simple certainty that He will. End of discussion. He will do this. This is your certain outcome. You will be founded. You will be grounded. You will be steadfast in faith. And you will be perfected in faith. Working backwards but one more step, you will be in His eternal glory in Christ. That too is settled, because He settled it.
I shall, I think, follow in Peter’s example, and circle back. You see, we have both a command and a promise here. The promise, I have just outlined. But, come back to the command. The command is be humble, serious and alert to resist the devil in faith. It is in heeding the command that we have our challenge. And here, let us be clear, the problem we are challenged by is not our inability. After all, if we are to succeed it’s not going to be by our ability anyway. It is God Who is able. That is the message delivered in the command to humble ourselves under His mighty hand. He’s in charge. It’s His strength. If we would but remember that, we would fare much better. Our biggest problem, as hinted in the call to cast our anxiety upon Him, is that we so proudly seek to deal with things ourselves, leaving God out of it.
Jesus spent a fair amount of energy on this subject. “This is why I tell you not to be anxious for your life, regarding what you shall eat, drink or wear for clothing. Life is more than this” (Mt 6:25). There is a quote from the NCV that is posted on our kitchen cabinet: “If you cannot do even the little things, then why worry about the big things?” (Lk 12:26). Well, standing fast in faith against the onslaughts of suffering and of the devil and his minions would certainly seem to be up there in the big things category. If we’re attempting that on our own power and merit, we are, to use the colloquialism, hosed.
That does not mean we just, ‘let go and let God’. No! We are called to active participation in this process. If it were not so, Peter would stop with the call to cast every care upon God. Just forget about it and go on with life. He’s got you covered. It’s true, but it’s incomplete. So, Peter refuses to leave us there. He adds: Be alert; Be serious; Resist! The problem, as I said is not our inability. It’s certainly not God’s inability. The problem, the thing that makes us stumble and fall so often, is simple inattention and lack of trying. We have imbibed that whole ‘let go and let God’ fallacy. After all, it’s easy, right? It doesn’t take much effort to simply ignore the problems.
This is not the council of God, this is the laziness of sloth. God calls us to strive, to resist, to be on the alert, to give no foothold, to stand fast. Hear Paul on the subject. “I am careful to forgive so that Satan cannot take advantage of us. For we are not ignorant of his schemes” (2Co 2:11). If I am not careful, I will not forgive. Grudges can slip in unawares. If we are not on the lookout for the devil’s schemes, we will find ourselves mired in them. Satan, as one pastor put it many years ago, has one mode of attack, and that’s your mind. If you are not alert, aware, watching for his schemes, he’ll have you thinking things you know you oughtn’t. He’ll have you responding and reacting in ways that are abhorrent to your own soul. And you won’t even notice until it’s over, and you’re giving yourself a dope-slap wondering how you could have done such a thing. And notice: Your first reaction will be to set all the blame on yourself as if you were the captain of this ship.
Sin enters swiftly when our guard is down. We cannot let that opportunity arise. Give the devil no foothold. Give him no opportunity. Don’t let the sun set on your anger (Eph 4:26-27). Deal with it, lest it become a grudge. Forgive swiftly. Indeed, refuse to take offense in the first place. Humble yourself before your brother. Recognize that you are no better and quite possibly worse than he is. “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” Or, to borrow Phil Keaggy’s lyric, “It could’ve been me.” That’s just it: We are capable of the self-same thing, and we are fools to think otherwise. It’s not just that it could have been me. It could yet be me. All it takes is getting lazy, getting cocky, forgetting the battle we are in.
But, in the midst of that battle, let us draw upon the strength of God. There is a reason Peter sets these promises before us, weaving together the commands and the promises. “The God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ will.” That’s our confidence. He will. He is strong. He cares for us, and because He cares for us, we can be carefree even in the midst of battle; singing while we’re swinging the sword of faith, careless of the suffering that may come our way in His name, because we know the end result is Life in eternity with Him. Why? Because He has said it, and He is able.
